CHAPTER 2

No survivors sent signals, so I marked a zero, pinching the bridge of my nose, ending the day's work.

My day is composed as follows:

In the morning, if the weather is good, I go out to inspect the outpost for any signs of creature intrusion.

About once a week, I leave the outpost and venture farther, searching for traces of the creatures and collecting soil samples to analyze pollution levels.

If I go out, I have dinner when I return in the evening and go to the rest area to sleep.

If I stay inside, I spend the day organizing documents, turning on the radio to receive signals, receiving supplies, submitting samples and reports, taking inventory. Occasionally, I flip through tattered leisure books. It's not easy to find books after the war, but luckily the outpost has some outdated and tattered romance novels. It's easy for me to pass the time.

I turn off the radio and crumple up the activity sheet I recorded today, then I go back to my room and clip it into the work journal.

I pull the lock twice to make sure Li Haohao can't snoop through my drawer tonight.

Sometimes I take the work journal back to my room to write, which gives Li Haohao an opportunity to sneak a peek.

The photo that was clipped is too old, both the wooden cabinet and the cat, as if from the last century.

I can't even remember the name of that calico cat.

When I turn around, Li Haohao is already crouched at the doorway, her fingers probing in, testing the boundaries, which she quickly withdraws when I see her, like a mischievous cat.

The things that grow on her each week are harmless enough, the fingers are just a bit unsettling, the whiskers may be unsightly, but among the things she grows, cat ears are already the least harmful and the most innocuous of her new features.

I recall that before the war, there were some people who had peculiar tastes for cat ears. They can be divided into two categories: those who prefer a higher degree of anthropomorphism, in short, a human-like cat, at least without human ears, and those who are only interested in the triangular two-pointed ears, satisfied with wearing a hair clip.

I don't have any such preferences, but Li Haohao keeps scratching at them, as if they aren't her own.

"It's noisy." Li Haohao said.

That surprises me, I thought she was crouching at the door to say "hungry."

After all, it's around mealtime, and I should go to the warehouse to find something to eat.

"Noisy? What did you hear?"

"Drip, drip, drop." she said.

Drip, drip, drop. It's the sound of rain.

But the walls of the outpost were quite thick, with good sound insulation. At least I couldn't hear anything. She grew an extra pair of ears, doubling her hearing ability.

I thought for a moment, opened my personal locker, and took out an old worn-out cotton jacket. I pulled out two cotton balls from inside.

"Put them in your ears."

The jacket was a bit small in size. I had initially planned to separate the fabric and cotton and sew two kneepads with the cotton. But winter had passed, and I didn't feel like doing it anymore.

Li Haohao hesitated for a moment, then grabbed two handfuls from the fluffy cotton and stuffed them into her human ears.

Then she lifted her head and listened, still frowning. "Noisy."

I didn't bother with her, she would quietly adjust the cotton to the right position in a while.

I locked the door behind me, using my body to block the keyhole. Suddenly, Li Haohao stood up and walked to the left.

My room was at the end of the third floor, with several other rooms in between, of course.

She took a step forward, perked up her cat ears, took several more steps forward, turned back, and stopped at the room next to mine.

The doors of the rooms on the third floor were painted in a dark brown color, designed to recreate the texture of pre-war wooden door furniture, but it couldn't hide the coldness of the silver-white walls. The floor was made of heat-resistant, porcelain-white special material, with hexagonal tiles pieced together like a honeycomb.

Li Haohao covered her ears and rolled around in this white honeycomb, complaining, "It's noisy, noisy."

"Did you hear anything in the afternoon?"

"I heard it when I came up."

"Did you hear anything when we came up for the first time?"

Li Haohao vigorously rubbed her cat ears, took out the cotton from her own ears, and stuffed it back in again. "It wasn't noisy when we first came up. You went to work, and I didn't hear any sounds from below. Then I got hungry, came up, and it became noisy."

"Where is the sound coming from?"

Li Haohao pointed to the room next to me and pressed her ears against the wooden door.

Although Li Haohao could be mischievous, she didn't possess any lock-picking skills. The second and fourth floors, as well as the basement, were restricted areas for her. Only my room on the third floor remained unlocked—she could only roam around most of the rooms on the first floor.

She had never been to the room next to mine, and now she heard a sound there, which piqued her curiosity. She listened for a while, even though the cotton balls were muffling her ears, and then she looked at me with her hands covering her ears.

On my room's door, my name and title were hung: Researcher He Ran

On the door of the room where I couldn't hear any sound, there was just a blank sign.

"What kind of sound is it?"

I can understand the differences between Li Haohao and myself. She is a different kind of creature, with completely different psychological activities and ways of thinking. Furthermore, she can change in ways that are unimaginable to me, so it's reasonable that there are some things I can't hear.

Li Haohao frowned. I concluded that the sound in the room wasn't something concrete, otherwise, the lively little troublemaker in front of me wouldn't have shown such a serious expression.

After about a minute, Li Haohao nodded, indicating that she understood. She suddenly opened her index finger and scratched the wall, making a piercing and eerie sound.

"That's it."

Li Haohao stopped and said, "It's so noisy."

"So noisy." I agreed.

Li Haohao inexplicably became happy because I agreed with her, and she gleefully pressed her cat ears down forcefully. "What are we having for food?"

"Oatmeal porridge."

Her smile faded, and Li Haohao couldn't believe I was giving her such a tasteless food.

I had often given her flavorless food before, and she always exaggerated her expressions as if the sky was falling. I had seen that expression at least ten times.

Our food supplies were limited, and curry-roasted chicken was a delicacy that we might not come across for three months. Li Haohao had no concept of our food inventory.

But this time, she suddenly seemed to have learned something. She pinched her ears and ran ahead, saying, "What do cats usually eat?"

Today, she decided to play the role of a cat.

I replied seriously, "They eat oatmeal porridge."

Li Haohao was easily deceived by my expression. She initially believed me and obediently walked downstairs, entered the kitchen, lowered the small table board, and took out two stainless steel bowls and spoons to set up.

But I couldn't hold back my laughter, although I tried hard to suppress it, and to the outside observer, it just looked like a slight twitch in the corners of my mouth.

Li Haohao immediately understood that I had just been fooling around. She rarely understood the distinction between "lies" and "jokes," let alone the difference between them. She immediately drooped her face and said, "Deception."

"No, it was a joke." I corrected her.

Li Haohao couldn't quite grasp the distinction, and though she was still upset, she was curious. "What do cats eat then?"

Of course, I couldn't tell her they eat canned meat—I had calculated that we only had one can left for this month, and I planned to cut a piece to stew with rice tomorrow.

Cat food? I would need to explain the composition of cat food, and that's a complex concept I didn't feel like getting into.

"Cats eat whatever their owner eats."

Li Haohao frowned. "Deception."

"No, it's true. The cat you saw eats the same things as me. It eats what I have left."

"So it's so small because you're so big." Li Haohao simplistically believed that food intake and body size were directly related.

"Cats are just that size. It's a different species, like chickens. No matter how much they eat, they won't grow taller than me."

"But I've seen rats bigger than you." Li Haohao said. She was referring to the monstrous creatures.

"I'm talking about the normal creatures from before the war. After the war, the world changed a lot, and many things are abnormal."

Li Haohao paused for a moment. Her concept of time was different from mine, and her world didn't exist in the same "pre-war" and "post-war" as mine. Her understanding was blurry, and I hadn't explained these things in detail. She could only speculate.

Her thoughts twisted for a while before circling back. "So, do I have to eat what you have left?"

"Not necessarily. You just have cat ears, you're not a cat," I advised her earnestly. "And cats can only eat oatmeal porridge."

She immediately decided to be human again. "I want to know what habits cats have."

"You want to imitate a cat?"

"Because in one, two, three, four... six days, I won't have cat ears anymore, so I want to make the most of them."

"But can't you hear sounds?" I reminded her.

Li Haohao paused, took out some cotton from her ears, looked around in confusion, and ran up to the third floor before coming back down. "There's no sound."

"That's good. It won't disturb your sleep."

"Aren't you curious about that sound?"

"Li Haohao," I fetched oatmeal from the kitchen, something she would never touch on her own. "I am human and shouldn't go around listening to some strange sounds. That's the way humans survive in the post-war world. Considering that you have a higher level of intelligence, I suggest you plug your ears and don't listen to them."

"Then my cat ears are useless."

"You can act cute."

"What's acting cute?"

Realizing I had misspoke, I poured in some barely recognizable expired oatmeal into the pot. Li Haohao tugged at my arm. "What does 'cute' means? And what about 'act'?"

"'Cute' means adorable."

"What about 'act'?"

"Remember 'buying and selling'? It's that 'act'."

"Then I want to buy meat," Li Haohao grabbed onto me. "I want to eat meat."

Before starting the fire, I have to deal with her first, raising my hands to indicate that I don't have any meat for her to eat from head to toe.

Li Haohao looked puzzled. "I've sold you the 'cute', why don't you give me meat?"

Wait a minute, is that what this trade is about?

Hold on, when did Li Haohao act cute?

"Where's the 'cute'?"

Li Haohao cupped her cheeks with her hands. "It's right here."

She was saying that she herself was cute.

We had different starting points, but in the end, she genuinely sold me her cuteness.

The girl with messy hair and cotton-stuffed cat ears bounced around, holding her face solemnly, ready to make a deal with me.

I extended a finger, thought for a moment, and changed it to my pinky. "I can only exchange this small amount of meat."

Li Haohao was extremely happy. "Okay, okay, I'll sell it again tomorrow."

"But you've already sold it, and now you are my possession. You can't sell it again." I subtly changed the concept.

Li Haohao froze, sitting at the table in disbelief. "Is 'being cute' so cheap? Does this ear have no use for the next few days?"

I started cooking porridge, and Li Haohao muttered something to herself. When I poured the unappetizing-looking oatmeal porridge into her bowl, she gritted her teeth and made up her mind. "I'll sell it! I want to eat meat!"

"Keep your 'cuteness' for now. We won't eat meat today, we can only eat it tomorrow."

"Can I eat meat without 'acting cute'?"

"Eating meat has a schedule."

"When will be the next time we can eat?"

"I'll let you know when I've figured it out."

"When will you be able to figure it out?"

Li Haohao persisted, but my heart was as tough as iron. I scraped the bottom of the pot into my own bowl and expressionlessly picked up the spoon.

"Uh, then when can we eat meat tomorrow? Are you going out tomorrow? Can I eat so much meat?"

Li Haohao boldly extended her thumb and gestured a size about the length of a joint.

I nodded in agreement, and Li Haohao happily picked up her bowl, eating today's porridge with a rosy and joyful expression, anticipating tomorrow's meat.

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